Assault courses for training combat personnel generally comprise an open top walled structure, which is laid out in a floor plan of a typical house or building located in enemy territory. The purpose of the assault course is to simulate combat field conditions for a trainee who might eventually have to find and capture enemy personal hiding within a building. Since training of the personnel can require the personnel to quickly fire their weapon as they enter a room it is necessary to have the walls of the assault course able to withstand the impact of multiple rounds of ammunition as well as to retain the bullets that impact against the wall in order to prevent ricocheting bullets from injuring the trainees.
In order to build an assault course, a concrete foundation is first laid in the terrain. Next, concrete walls are poured to form the external perimeter walls as well as any interior walls of the assault course. In the final step the walls are covered with material to absorb and capture any bullets or fragments that might ricochet off the walls.
While such systems function well for permanent assault course training facilities it is difficult to erect such assault courses in the field where the potential special forces need field training on how to capture enemy personal hiding in local buildings. For example, if military forces are quickly brought into an area there may be an urgent need to quickly train the military forces under field conditions that includes the types of buildings that enemy forces might be hiding in. Oftentimes environment conditions can preclude the quick erecting of an assault course. For example, the weather may be to cold to pour concrete or the soil may be difficult to lay a foundation. A further drawback is that once the concrete assault course is built it becomes a permanent part of the landscape and cannot be moved to another location.
The present invention comprises a set of modular panels that can quickly be erected and assembled to form an assault course with the use of simple mechanical tools. If the panels are large military personal can use a mobile crane to position the panels in an upright condition to form the assault course. Once positioned, each of the panels is secured to a base through removable fasteners such as bolts and nuts. On the other hand if the panels are small military personal can lift and position both the base member and the panels without the aid of a crane; however, for larger panels cranes can be used to hoist the panels into position.
The present invention includes a set of modular panels, having a core that cannot be penetrated by a bullet with the modular panel assembleable into an assault course having a bullet retaining material secured to at least one face of each of the panels. The panels are positioned in a side-to-side condition so that the bullet-retaining member on one panel extends into abutting engagement with the bullet-retaining member on an adjacent panel so as not to form a gap therebetween.
In order to permit the bullet retaining materials to be secured to the panel under adverse environmental condition a set of spikes are mounted to the surface of the panel. In order to retain bullets and prevent ricocheting thereof an elastomer bullet-retaining member is removable secured to the face of the panel by forcing the spikes into the elastomer to hold the elastomer in position during field training in the assault course.
A further feature of the invention, in contrast to concrete cast assault courses, is that if either a panel or a bullet retaining member becomes significantly damaged by repeated firings the panel and bullet retaining member can be easily replaced and be in a condition for use without having to wait for concrete to cure.